The Department of Basic Education (DBE) aimed to pilot a biometrics system within public schools to assess its viability and effectiveness in enforcing teacher accountability in South Africa.

The department was expected to analyse the potential cost and timeframes, besides others, of the proposed project, and would initiate wide consultations before moving ahead with implementation.

The roll-out and process had not yet started, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said on Tuesday in a post State of the Nation address briefing.

Previous media reports indicated the biometrics system would be rolled out across 24 000 public schools at a cost of R480-million.

“We have noted with great concern the calls by various role-players, including parents who have observed the trend in teachers’ absenteeism and lack of accountability,” the Minister said.

The DBE said measures, such as effective and reliable staff attendance registers, learners’ class attendance registers, and the monitoring of the use of accountability instruments, were implemented, but the department was exploring various other mechanisms to monitor staff attendance.

Motshekga said the system would “relieve” the burden of the school principals manually clocking teachers in, replacing the manual attendance registers currently used by every school.

“… this is not a policing system, but a management tool to monitor school attendance for both teachers and learners, “she emphasised.

The main aim of the system was to ensure attendance and contact time between learners and teachers.